Boxing Day to Hogmanay!

Boxing Day

A beautiful, clear day in Saas-Fee. We had three goals for the day.

1. Successfully negotiate the many winding paths through the village to find the beautiful stone bridge over a running stream we had seen from the gondola yesterday.

2. Go for a snow walk in the mountains.

3. Build a snowman.

We managed to do all three.

Even though it was absolutely freezing we enjoyed a lovely walk through the town (typically taking short-cuts through knee-deep snow to find our little bridge). It was as beautiful as it looked from up high.

A little further on we found a perfect place to build our snowman. The snow was so beautiful and powdery, it was hard to get it to stick - but get it to stick we did!

Meet Hugo

He's not huge - but he's the best we could do with non-waterproof gloves (Phil donated his gloves, hat and scarf to 'Hugo' anyway!).

Spent the afternoon taking a wonderful, long walk through the mountains on one of the snow-walking paths. It was lovely to have the time to actually take in the beauty of our surroundings.

Completed our day with a night-time stroll through the village.

Saas-Fee is another one that definitely goes on the 'must return' list.

Saturday 27th

Said good-bye to Saas-Fee and got back into our little car for our journey into France. Did some more driving through the magnificent alps before crossing the border and heading to the Mont Blanc ski town of Chamonix.

There is a tunnel right through Mont Blanc from France to Italy. Couldn't resist 'popping in' to Italy for a pizza! Drove through the tunnel (an experience in itself) and then for about an hour beyond to the lovely town of Aosta.

The drive from France to Italy

Once again, found ourselves driving through the middle of the old town square (much to the astonishment of the locals - don't think we were meant to do that!) and eventually found a lovely pizzeria.

The town square of Aosta - Italy

Headed back into France and continued on our way to our destination for the evening - Annecy - 'the Venice of the Alps'. What a beautiful town. Annecy sits on the shore of what is apparently the purest lake in Europe. A river flows from the lake in canal-like fashion through the old town and the buildings are literally built on the river - Venice style. Took a stroll along the river and to the lake and marvelled at how perfectly clear the water was. We've never seen anything like it. You can see straight to the bottom. Ducks can be seen perfectly clearly as they dive to the bottom of the lake for a feed.

Annecy


Louise at Lake Annecy

We really knew we were in France. Shuttered windows. Little balconies. Dozens and dozens of restaurants and cafes. We ended up in a fabulous piano bar listening to a four-piece jazz band (just locals jamming - very talented!), enjoying French wine and cheese. Louise is in heaven!!

Sunday 28th

Our morning exploration of Annecy was made all the more fun by the fact that the local produce market comes to town on a Sunday morning. Every second stall sold cheese(hooray!!!). Every other stall sold sausage. It was bustling. Stayed and wandered for quite some time.

Reluctantly left and continued on our way to our next French destination - Riquewihr in the Alsace region. After a fairly big driving day, we arrived by nightfall.

Riquewihr is a small town with a positively ancient old town centre surrounded by an intact old city wall. We're pretty clever and catch on quickly - so we decided not to drive through this old town centre!! Instead, we parked the car and walked to our hotel (pretty fast learners, hey!!?? Shame we're leaving Europe in a couple of days...!) On checking in we discovered that this is one town square you actually can drive through if you're staying inside the walls (groan!!).


Riquewihr

Spent a lovely evening exploring the old town - beautiful half-timbered buildings mostly dating from the 1500s - quite unlike anything we've seen. There were quite a few other people enjoying the sights which added to the atmosphere. Had a lovely dinner of food and wine from the local Alsace region to complete the day.

Monday 29th

Spent the morning exploring Riquewihr by daylight - beautiful. Continued on our way north towards Frankfurt where we're spending tonight in readiness for our morning flight to Edinburgh tomorrow. The drive took us through some beautiful Alsace region vineyards - quite spectacular scenery.

The Alsace region (above and below)



As we had the whole day at our disposal, we decided to take a detour through the Black Forest. At this time of the year it's more like the white forest, really beautiful under snow.

Arrived at the Frankfurt airport hotel in the evening - feeling very proud of the fact that we were so well organised and could get up in the morning and enjoy a leisurely breakfast before driving 10 minutes to the airport. We were just congratulating ourselves on the success of our European journey and the fact we'd made it without a hitch (what's driving through a few town squares between friends?). Well - we obviously should have touched wood at that point...

We're not sure why, but it was at about that minute that we both had a sudden urge to check how many airports there are in Frankfurt - call it a 'feeling' - are we staying at the right one? A quick bit of detective work (thanks, Google) and... guess what?? There's more than one airport at Frankfurt and we were staying near the wrong one!! The one we needed is about 100km away! So much for a leisurely breakfast. Had to get up an hour earlier and skip breakfast to make the flight. Oh well - we nearly made it without a hitch and our waistlines could certainly do without another continental breakfast - but it was our last one!

Tuesday 30th

Made the flight in plenty of time and arrived in Edinburgh around lunchtime. Spent the afternoon wandering along the Royal Mile - it's nice to be back! Edinburgh is very different at this time of year - all geared up for Hogmanay. The gardens are turned into a bit of a fair ground (including an outdoor ice-skating rink) and there are people everywhere - a great atmosphere!

Visited a beautiful old pub on the Royal Mile for dinner and met a great couple - Barbie and Graham from Newcastle. Had a fun couple of hours chatting - lots of laughs.

With Barbie and Graham at 'The Mitre' on the Royal Mile (go Newcastle!)

Ventured on to our next activity for the evening - a stand-up comedy venue. Can't remember when we've laughed so much! Three spectacular comediens and a very funny compere - all had us in stitches. Had a brilliant time and met another great couple - Danny and Rachael. All the best for continued succes with 'Mrs Bucket' (it's Bouquet!!) Rachael - sounds like the business is going brilliantly! Congratulations.

Getting excited - it's Hogmanay tomorrow!!

Wednesday 31st - Hogmanay

Spent the morning exploring Edinburgh Castle. There's so much to see! Museums, fabulous architecure, exhibitions, a war memorial, a beautiful chapel... we spent hours here.

Phil at Edinburgh Castle

Enjoyed an afternoon visit to the Scottish National Gallery - a really impressive collection of art from a whole range of periods (including Rubens, Titian, Rembrandt, Van Gough, Monet, etc).

And now for the purpose of our visit to Edinburgh - Hogmanay!!

We had an absolutely brilliant time! Wandered through the street party on our way to the Ceilidh in the Gardens. There was a really great atmosphere. The ceilidh was a separate ticketed event and the number of people there was perfect. The dance floor was actually the open air ice-skating rink covered with a rubber floor - a great idea. While people were packed into the area, there was still enough room to dance - and dance we did! Strip the Willow, the Dashing White Sergeant, the Gay Gordons - didn't even feel the below zero temperature (not sure if those wearing kilts would agree)! By the end of the night, we had become 'experts' and were actually teaching the steps to others! We had a really fun time and met lots of great people. At midnight there was a brilliant firework display from Edinburgh Castle - it was a real show-stopper. Had another few dances before making our way home. The ceilidh at Edinburgh's Hogmanay was certainly a great way to see in the new year.

Fireworks from the castle


Happy Hogmanay!

1st January 2009

Happy New Year!

Spent our last few hours in Edinburgh walking up the very steep hill (at the foot of the Royal Mile near Holyrood Palace) to Arthur's Seat which affords a spectacular view over Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth. Well worth the climb.

View from the walk to Arthur's Seat - Edinburgh Castle in the background

Back in London now for a couple of days - preparing for our next adventure - two weeks in Russia!

Wishing you all a very safe and happy 2009!